The Shroyer Family: Our 2020 Intermission

Vacation, as stated in Webster's, is a respite or a time of respite away from home or business...an intermission. A break, if you will! A vacation, is a way to just step away from reality for a bit. To take a breather and take in new surroundings. I love our vacation's and look forward to them! This year, we were supposed to have 2....a beach vacation and then the mountains. However, COVID-19 happened, so the beach was taken off the list, back in May. We tossed the idea of no vacation, because it seems a 2nd surge is coming back and places are mandating masks that we just weren't sure we wanted to go through all of that, but last week we did it and ventured to the mountains all for the sake of a "break" from our reality w/our masks in hand.😷

The mountains are my thing, I prefer them over the beach. Brenton, not so much! He "likes" the mountains, but "loves" the beach. Not just any beach though, the gulf beaches and more specific Lido Beach in Sarasota. So, needless to say, he was bumming a bit when the beach trip was canceled. Ethan, is on my side. He let us know, he too, prefers the mountains and Colin, he loves them both. That boy just loves trips in general. LOL! Either way, we all love our road trips and enjoy all our trips together no matter which side of the coin you're on. We go for each other and next year, Brenton will get his beach I will make sure of it, but this year all we could pull off was one. So, we all packed up and headed to Gatlinburg.

This trip, from the beginning, I knew was going to be different. Just because, we had to pack masks and follow the public mandate while we were visiting. Having a child with autism, you have to always prepare for everything anyway and this would be no different. We can't just "go with the flow" without some sort've preparation, so we had to practice the masks and much to my surprise Colin didn't mind it at all.

Another new thing, we surprised Ethan with his best buddy joining us for the trip. This is the first time doing this and something we wanted to do for Ethan for his 13th birthday, but yet again COVID-19 made that trip impossible back in March. So, here we were with the opportunity still do the trip, just a few months later and we jumped at it. I'm so thankful it worked out, because Ethan had the best time and having Caden allowed him to create memories that will last a lifetime!

Yes, things were a tiny bit different and we had to wear masks when we shopped around, but it honestly wasn't that bad. Colin left his on and when we were done with the strip, those suckers came off and into the woods we went. The mountains is a place we like to escape to and when we're there, it's where we want to be. We don't do a lot of commercial things and that's by choice. My boys absolutely love it! There's just something about it and when you take your first step on the trail the whole mood changes and off we go into the forest. I don't know, but nature has a way of doing that and last week we totally embraced it. In all this craziness going on in the world, we all needed the change of pace and the "respite" that this trip provided! 2020 is definitely a year we will never forget, but atleast we have thrown in some positives that will be the highlight of our year!